My students are not your typical students. They all come from different countries. The languages they speak at home are not the same as most of their peers at school. They are bridging at least two cultures every day: the culture of home and the culture of school. Sometimes those cultures clash.
My state is primarily Caucasian.
But my students, most of whom are former refugees, are most definitely not.
When younger siblings arrive at elementary school, they make friends and find pathways into the social systems that exist. Everybody is trying to learn, more or less, the same thing.
But when a student starts their U.S. school career in high school, it's different. These students mostly keep to themselves, in their own language subgroups. Because they learn primarily in sheltered classes, where they learn English and content at the same time, they don't identify with students outside this system who share the same graduation dates.
Many of the students who grew up in the area don't even know my students exist. My students are never listed on the "senior superlatives" that show up in the yearbook. They are never voted homecoming king or queen. These groups rarely intermingle.
My Project
Minecraft has the potential to flatten the playing field a bit.
Minecraft is a sandbox construction video game that can be used to stimulate students' imagination and creativity, while bringing them into a community prime for collaboration through problem-solving and communication, all of which are part of the "soft skill" set employers wish to see when they hire.
Unlike other video games, there is no script. There are no outside forces telling students what they need to accomplish. they have to figure that out on their own.
As the teacher, I will set up scenarios to design and build worlds that go with our readings. We will explore creative mode, which is all about building, and survival mode, which is about staying safe from the bad guys, working to solve problems we encounter while playing. We will write and record videos about what we are learning and experiencing.
And after school, I'll open it up for students who don't normally associate to share, build and learn together.
My students usually don't get a chance to just play.
I found out this year that coding games that test their logic are a welcome change to the homework they usually are assigned. They can help teach each other. They can communicate and problem-solve over something that maybe has more than one right answer. And for English Language Learners, that's a very important lesson to learn in life. Minecraft can let them play, create, communicate and excel in a more forgiving world.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. EVANS and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.